Puyehue eruption update: 3,500 evacuated 5 June 2011

The Chilean Interior Ministry has extended the zone of evacuation imposed as a result of the eruption of Puyehue volcano, and up to 3,500 people are now affected. There are concerns about the capacity of the shelters provided for the evacuees, while many of those who have left their homes are worried about the fate of their properties and animals during their absence. A nearby crossing point on the Argentina/Chile border, at Cardenal Samoré pass, has been closed because of the eruption. Across the border Argentine territory has been affected by the eruption, with the town of Bariloche experiencing substantial ashfall this afternoon.

NASA’s Aqua satellite took the image above not long after the eruption began: the very ashy character of the emissions is evident. This is a detail of the original image, at 1 pixel = 250m scale; click here or on the image to go to the original at the NASA Rapid Response System site. About the nature of the eruption itself there is still relatively little information. SERNAGEOMIN has issued no new bulletin since their brief announcement that the eruption had begun, press coverage is short on detail, and there are no webcams for this volcano. The event clearly developed very quickly, with the initial plume rapidly reaching 10 km altitude, according to the first advisoryissued by Buenos Aires VAAC (20110604/1930Z). Later advisories reported ash at FL390/400 (39,000-40,000 feet, 11.9-12.2 km altitude), moving ESE. Videos of the eruption showed a substantial grey-white plume, but the views were somewhat obscured by cloud. SERNAGEOMIN described the plume as having an approximate height of 10 km and width of 5 km, and also reached the rapid conclusion that the eruption was VEI=3. The alert level for Puyehue has been raised to Red 6, ‘moderate eruption’ (details of the Chilean volcanic alert system can be found in this PDF from SERNAGEOMIN).

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Comments

It’s so good to have the Volcanism Blog back – thank you! Just wanted to pass along a Google Maps link (no GE) showing the volcano’s location (it is south of the ongoing weather alert and this morning’s strong earthquake, fortunately for Chile); haven’t checked them out yet, but Google also shows private webcams near the volcano!

Brief followup: Unfortunately, some of those cams aren’t working (wish the one in Osorno was!), but in exploring extra links found this view of the Civic Center in Bariloche:http://bit.ly/it9b3v Pretty sure that’s not snow.

It seems a there’s less information than when chaiten erupted. The last report on sernageomin’s website is more than a day ago and there are at least 3500 people evacuated.May be change on information as there is a new president?.

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